About a week ago we told you about a Hulu Plus promotion that gives new Chromecast owners two months of access to the premium portion of the streaming library for free. As it turns out, anyone in the US can get that sweet, sweet streaming video, no matter when they bought their Chromecast. AP reader Matthew discovered that he could follow the instructions for redeeming the offer on his older Chromecast without any kind of issues.

To take advantage of a couple of months of unlimited Hulu backlog, open the Chromecast app and manually connect to a Chromecast on your WiFi network. Then tap the hamburger button for the drop-down menu (not the slide-out menu) and tap "check for offers." From there you'll be forwarded to a web page with a link to redeem the special offer, along with Google's seemingly endless 90-day All Access music promotion. The free trial can be redeemed between now and the end of the year, but Google might start checking serial numbers for redemption, so jump on this if you want in.

There's one thing that will sink the deal for a lot of people: you can't start the two-month Plus trial period without giving Hulu your credit card information or your PayPal account. Naturally it will auto-renew itself at the end of the trial, so you'll have to act fast to keep your $16 freebie from turning into a recurring subscription. If that doesn't deter you, enjoy getting new episodes of Brooklyn Nine Nine without that BS eight-day wait.

Comments

I've been enjoying it for about 2 weeks now - but if the point of this promotion was to convince me to keep using it when the trial is up - they have failed spectacularly.
The content is good and the service is reliable - but:
The content is the off-air stuff with the adverts removed, this means that a stupid amount of content has ad breaks - where they stick a promo in for the channel the content came from, instead of adverts. If I was paying £6.99 a month - I would be screaming about any interruptions in the programs.

Further - take a program like Bedlam, Season 1, Episode 2, Part 4
First you think it's frozen, then you get a TX Master screen, finally part 4 starts and after playing for about 5 minutes, suddenly, inexplicably jumps back to the start of part 4 again.

Sky are going to have to rethink their service if they intend to be a real competitor. Also... a separate monthly fee for movies?! Netflix might not be the most content rich service in the world - but at least it's just ONE monthly fee.

Stylus_XL

I was really disappointed when I saw the terrible reviews of NOW TV, because I'd love to be able to subscribe to Sky digitally and watch it through the Chromecast. I had my Chromecast imported from the US before the official UK release, which is probably why I couldn't get that NOW TV promotion. Looks like I wasn't missing much anyway.

Yeah, the offer only shows on the Chromecast bought in the UK. It doesn't show on the 2 US imports I have, but they also don't show the Hulu US offer, so I'm not sure why there should be any restrictions on where the Chromecast was purchased, it should only be geographically tied to the country you are in when you search for offers. In any case, I believe you can get a 30 day trial for Now TV at their site?

Stylus_XL

Didn't realise that... thanks for the heads up. Might as well sign up for the free 30 day trial and see if it's tolerable.

It's not bad, the app could be better. It often tells me I've been blocked from watching if it's been in the background for a while, sometimes the cast icon vanishes and the app needs swiping away in the multitask screen, other times it says I'm blocked but let's me watch anyway :/

Just make sure you set up the phone and chromecast first, because there are only 4 devices allowed on your account and your phone and chromecast take up 2 slots!

El Presidente

I was toying with giving NOW TV a go as I'm not renewing my license fee, you're saying it's not worth it?

Do they have complete box sets on there, or just the odd individual season?

The offers link says "2 month free Hulu Plus for new subscribers". I guess it doesn't extend your subscription like the original Netflix offer did.

Cory S

oh well

Brad

I know... such a shame. I really enjoyed the free netflix... $8 or whatever isn't much, but still...

HotInEER

Just create another account. It's not that difficult and saves you 2 months of access.

Cory S

Sorta difficult to get it signed into all my media streaming devices though. In the end i'm too lazy to save money :P

Kevin

Is this only for new Hulu subscribers?

ezzkmo

Nice! I'll have to try this when I get home.

Michael

PSA: The 3 free months of Google Play Music promo is shit, you have to be a new user to Google Play Music. If you register your Chromecast to a existing account you are pretty much screwed.

Nick Cannon

Free commercials! Quit wasting my time

Dpat

Yeah I'll just use my Xfinity On-Demand for that.. Besides what ever aired is available the next day. IDK how Hulu does it, but I'm guessing it uses the same availability route.

andy_o

"You mean I can watch this over-the-air show at the time it airs, or DVR it and skip commercials, for free? Screw you! I will pay for it, wait until the next day, and not skip ads, thankyouverymuch."

Equal Opportunity Dork

My Hulu Plus sub is 8 bucks. How much is your cable and DVR?

andy_o

Cable? I have an OTA antenna thankyouverymuch. The DVR, whichever you choose, would be a one-time payment, and you're paying for hardware, just like you paid for your TV. I do have Netflix though, which doesn't have ads and costs similarly.

evcon

I'm assuming it's one offer per account, but does anybody know if it would stack to 4 months if you have two Chromecasts? Figured I'd ask.

Heimrik

Whoopdedoo.... Sorry to say, but unfortunately Hulu Plus sucks....

mewikime

Offer not available to current Hulu+ subscribers :(

Equal Opportunity Dork

The question is........can I cancel my current sub and do this?

4chan

Other's have said so, but it doesn't seem to let me. You can always make an account with a new email I guess.

Equal Opportunity Dork

mine just renewed, yesterday. If this is still around in a month, I will give it a go. Sure, I lose my queue for now, but I can limp by in the name of free money. lol.